Image copyrightAllan familyImage caption
Amy Allan died at Great Ormond Street Hospital last year

The coroner looking into the death of Scottish teenager Amy Allan has found significant failings in her care by Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Amy, from Dalry in North Ayrshire, was 14 when she died in September last year following surgery on her spine.

Coroner Edwyn Buckett outlined poor planning and support from the hospital.

But he said he "was not able to make a firm conclusion" that those omissions "had caused or materially contributed to her death."

The coroner is however likely to issue a prevention of future deaths report.

Great Ormond Street Hospital admitted Amy's care "fell short of the high standards" it should be meeting but said it had made changes to the way it worked.

'Live wire'

Amy Allan was born with a genetic condition called Noonan Syndrome, which caused a number of heart problems throughout her life.

As she got older her spine started to curve due to scoliosis and it was clear she needed surgery to reduce her pain and prevent it getting worse.

However, her heart problem - pulmonary hypertension- made the surgery more complicated.

It was decided the operation should be carried out at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in London, because it had the necessary heart specialists on site to treat any complications, specifically a life-support system known as ECMO which oxygenates blood outside the body.

However, when Amy's ventilation tube was removed after the operation and she needed the back-up cardiac and ECMO teams, they were not available.

Giving a narrative verdict, the coroner found:

there was poor planning of Amy's care once she was accepted on the intensive care unit.

there was no ECMO life-support system for Amy and "the therapy should have been at the forefront" of the team looking after her.

no-one was in charge of Amy's post-operative care, of ensuring that ECMO support was in place.

Her ventilation tube was removed "in the face of worsening vital signs" and without a cardiac assessment having been made.

Speaking to the BBC, Mrs Allan said her daughter was a "live wire" who always had a smile on her face.

"She had an attitude to life we all envied," her mother said.

She said it took two years from her first hospital appointment in Kilmarnock until the date of the operation at Great Ormond Street.